Let’s All Point And Laugh At The Imminent Death Of ‘American Idol’

The ratings are in for last night’s American Idol finale and they are not good. With 10.1 million viewers, it was the lowest rated finale ever for the singing competition, including that first season that saw Justin Guarini lose out to Kelly Clarkson.

That’s bad. That’s really bad.

This was a show that held the number one spot in the Nielsen ratings every year from 2003 to 2011. This was a show that once regularly was seen by more than 35 million viewers. This is a show that could at one time generate nearly $1 billion in ad revenue a year.

The show that could once attract nearly anyone to perform in its finale had to settle for the likes of Richard Marx and Jason Mraz last night.

In fact, the American Idol finale was seen last night by fewer people than the Modern Family finale. AI is no longer the number one show on television (in fact, last week, it was number 15), it’s not even the number one show in its time-slot. It’s completely unraveled.

HA HA.

Of course, it’s not dead yet. Despite the fact that it seems to reformulate the judges’ panel every season, and introduce new elements into the competition, it’s ratings continue to dwindle, so it’s only a matter of time. There may be one or two seasons left before it sputters into oblivion, but American Idol is on its way out.

It’s not that much better for The Voice, which hit a series low two weeks ago, and shed 25 percent of its viewership from last Spring to this Spring’s finale. It was seen by more viewers than American Idol, but it’s 11 million viewers is down from the 15 million viewers who saw last year’s finale.

These singing competitions — American Idol, The X-Factor, The Voice, plus the basic cable iterations — basically cannibalized each other and singer competition fatigue set in. When’s the last time one of these winners mattered? The stakes are gone. The viewers are gone. Soon, so will the singing shows, and the networks can get back to doing what they do best: Churning out generic scripted programming that they’ll cancel after 13 episodes.

I think part of it is that people started realizing that winning American Idol doesn’t mean jack. There’s been a few winners who have become award winners (Clarkson, Underwood) but for the most part people win and then fade into the darkness so the show can focus on what’s next.

Maybe if they spent as much time promoting the winners as they do promoting the next season of the show, it’d feel important when the finale came up.

@Duto, agreed. I figured this out after season 2 or 3. Funny thing is, I like Ruben Studdard even though I don’t like modern day R&B. Yet I feel like the guy never reached the fame that Kelly Clarkson did, and that Carrie Underwood still does.

AI produced Phillip Phillips two seasons ago, and he had a couple top 10 hits in the past year and a platinum album that debuted at #4. Scotty Mcreery won 3 seasons ago, won a few best new artist awards and his latest album had a top ten hit. Adam Lambert, runner up a couple years ago is now the lead singer of Queen.

Not to mention past idols who are still going strong, like carrie underwood, jordin sparks, jennifer hudson, etc

and though they arent number 1 anymore, number 15 doesnt seem like a killshot that will end it any time soon

AI has definitely gone down hill, but let’s be realistic here. Many of the aforementioned contestants have gone on to success that they never would have had without the show. Releasing an album that sells even 100K copies is something most musicians only dream about. Then you have acting careers, Vegas, Broadway, television gigs, etc etc.

Beyond that, who says the show has to produce huge successes anyway? Adam Levine, who I never thought I’d reference in my life, got into some shit a year or so ago for suggesting that the winner of The Voice didn’t have to be a success to validate the show. The show is about the show and people watch it to see the competition.

With all of that defense said, they are stacking the seasons of these shows too close together for my taste. There are too many options on tv for them to maintain the once huge ratings. It doesn’t make it a failure tv snobs. Go back to binge watching Breaking Bad now.